Chrissy Stroop
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thebugbeardispatch.bsky.social
Chrissy Stroop
@thebugbeardispatch.bsky.social
Cofounder of The Flytrap @theflytrapmedia.bsky.social
Senior correspondent for Religion Dispatches
Former weekly columnist for openDemocracy
Ball State (BA) and Stanford (PhD) alum

Pacific Northwest via a long, weird, winding road
Pinned
Me: I stocked us up on Halloween candy.

Roomie: That’s good, as long as we don’t embezzle it.

Me: Well, um, this one bag “turns out to be” open somehow. I guess we’ll have to inspect every piece

Roomie: By…

Me: Eating them. It’s the only surefire way to protect the children
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
Looks like ICE is now cracking down on … Native Americans.

This letter was just posted by the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North/South Dakota:

“Our Nation is a sovereign government and our members are not immigrants. We are not subject to immigration enforcement on our own lands.”
January 10, 2026 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
Call your congressfolk and demand they cosponsor this:

bsky.app/profile/than...
The tragic death of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year old mother fatally shot by ICE, shows that ICE can’t be reformed and must be abolished.

I’ll be introducing the Abolish ICE Act as a step toward justice, accountability, and humanity in our immigration policy.

Time to melt ICE.
January 9, 2026 at 10:03 PM
Abolish ICE and prosecute the criminal Trump regime from top to bottom. All Dens SHOULD be able to enthusiastically support those things. Too bad the most powerful and influential of them are still completely useless
NEW: “SHOULD ICE BE ABOLISHED?”

We asked Tennessee Dems running for Congress in TN-9 (Pearson & Cohen) and TN-5 (Molder, Torino, Cortese, Neal) if they support abolishing ICE.

Pearson & Cohen were the only ones to say “YES” unequivocally.

Their answers: tnholler.com/2026/01/shou...
January 9, 2026 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
NEW: “SHOULD ICE BE ABOLISHED?”

We asked Tennessee Dems running for Congress in TN-9 (Pearson & Cohen) and TN-5 (Molder, Torino, Cortese, Neal) if they support abolishing ICE.

Pearson & Cohen were the only ones to say “YES” unequivocally.

Their answers: tnholler.com/2026/01/shou...
January 9, 2026 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
Catch this @religiondispatches.org interview of LDB author Nia Chiaramonte by the intrepid Chrissy Stroop, @thebugbeardispatch.bsky.social.

Such a good conversation. Lessons for us all.

You’ll definitely want to check out her book “I Hardly Knew Me”.
religiondispatches.org/the-trees-do...
'The Trees Don’t Care Who You Are' — From Evangelical to a Transgender Awakening
A week before Christmas—as so many had already begun to tune out the news and focus on holiday plans—the House passed two draconian anti-trans bills fueled by Christian nationalist hatred. So much for...
religiondispatches.org
January 9, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
This week's reprint from Bitch Media is a delightful read from @rjelevi.bsky.social on finding joy in fandom during the darkest days of the early pandemic—timely for the dark times we are living through now.
To Fandom, With Love
Fanfic lets us imagine a better world together.
www.theflytrapmedia.com
January 9, 2026 at 6:11 PM
I was really glad to do this book interview, and you all should check out Nia’s book, I Hardly Knew Me: Following Love, Faith, and Skittles to a Transgender Awakening

www.lakedrivebooks.com/books/i-hard...
January 9, 2026 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
hi! i'm co-founding a new gaming website with my former polygon colleague @zoehhannah.com. it's called mothership.blog. i made it for someone like me... the kind of website i always wished we had in our space. watch the video to learn more :D
January 9, 2026 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
i know a lot of games journalists and critics follow me, and you'll notice that mothership.blog already has a "How to pitch" page live, along with a few other pages! so yes, please, go ahead and pitch. i'm so excited to announce this in part to get more of your voices out there.
January 9, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
Check out The Flytrap's own @nicolefroio.bsky.social in @conversationalist.org, writing about a UBI program for artists in Ireland! Funding the arts is good, actually.
Painting a More Hopeful Future
Why Ireland’s Basic Income for the Arts program is just the first step in better supporting the country’s artists.
conversationalist.org
January 8, 2026 at 9:29 PM
DO IT.

And Europe if you’re Iistening, pass sanctions NOW on Musk, Trump, all Trump cabinet officials and staffers, and everyone in their orbit
January 8, 2026 at 10:36 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
The cherry on top of this outstanding piece is this amazing illustration- zoom in for the goodness
TODAY on @theflytrapmedia.com, and unpaywalled for all, I'm talking about algospeak, cuteification, and the implications of softening language about hard things.
Algospeak Will Be the Unaliving of Me
Maybe we want to bare our teeth.
www.theflytrapmedia.com
January 8, 2026 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
TODAY on @theflytrapmedia.com, and unpaywalled for all, I'm talking about algospeak, cuteification, and the implications of softening language about hard things.
Algospeak Will Be the Unaliving of Me
Maybe we want to bare our teeth.
www.theflytrapmedia.com
January 6, 2026 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
girl i wrote my signal wrong 😭 it's actually lex_mcmenamin.68! sorry!!!
January 7, 2026 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
~news~: this week I started at The Guardian US @us.theguardian.com as Movement Building reporter, continuing my coverage of protest, repression and resistance against war, LGBTQ rights, policing, labor, and more under Trump.

organizers, advocates—send me your stories! I’m on Signal lex.mcmenamin.68
January 7, 2026 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.
January 7, 2026 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
And again, yes, rule 34, I've got my own weird kinks, put boobs on whatever, just... Coexist with people who share many of your values? Please? America is doing terrible things and living here sucks for all marginalized people but please stop lashing out over nothing
January 6, 2026 at 6:50 PM
If so, I guess it only works because of the way things went down with people attacking Parker yesterday
January 6, 2026 at 7:34 PM
I mean, I realize that to many furries, it's an identity thing that runs deeper that what most would consider a hobby, but to conflate one video game mod with all furries everywhere also seems... grandiose and weird?
January 6, 2026 at 6:55 PM
And again, yes, rule 34, I've got my own weird kinks, put boobs on whatever, just... Coexist with people who share many of your values? Please? America is doing terrible things and living here sucks for all marginalized people but please stop lashing out over nothing
January 6, 2026 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Chrissy Stroop
We're witnessing people crashing out at scales previously unseen in human history
January 6, 2026 at 6:49 PM
Seriously, "defurrification eugenics"? That is a phrase I'd never have thought about, let alone over one person's "y tho" reaction to putting boobs on a beloved video game character from a franchise in which boobs run kinda counter to the entire aesthetic
January 6, 2026 at 6:47 PM
I have nothing against furries whatsoever but I do side-eye fandom culture in general
January 6, 2026 at 6:44 PM
Getting back to work and being more online and Jesus tap-dancing drag brunch Christ I think I will continue to limit my engagement on social media--the only outlet for which I have left is this one btw.

Put boobs on cutesy characters if you want. Think that's weird if you want. Coexist.

Fuck
January 6, 2026 at 6:41 PM
Jesus Christ, I leave this site for ten minutes and…
January 6, 2026 at 6:36 PM